Economy in Brief

The European Monetary Union has logged its 4th trade surplus in a row and the 5th surplus in the last six months. This follows a long stretch of deficits that arose in the early post-COVID period.

The surplus: The surplus in August has moved up to €11.9 billion from €3.5 billion in July. The 12-month average is still at a deficit of €7.8 billion. The current account surplus/deficit situation is chronically a balancing act between a manufacturing surplus and the deficit logged on the nonmanufacturing account. In August, the manufacturing trade balance among monetary union members moved up to €34.9 billion from €29.9 billion in July. That compares to a deficit of €23 billion in August versus €26.4 billion in July for the nonmanufacturing trade balance. The larger surplus in manufacturing, of course, causes the overall trade balance to be positive.

Month-to-month: Exports in the monetary union rose by 1.6% in August after falling by 1.7% month-to-month in July; imports fell by 2% in August after rising by 0.1% in July.

Sequential trends: Sequentially export growth in the monetary union is still negative but at more or less steady negative paces running at -3.8% over 12 months, at a -4% pace over six months and at a -3.6% pace over three months. Imports also show consistent and essentially trendless negative growth rates, but they are much weaker growth rates (larger negative growth rates) that coalesced around declines of 20% at an annual rate or a little bit more.

Sequential manufacturing trends: Focusing on manufacturing doesn't change the trends very much. Manufacturing exports over 12 months to six months to three months show all-negative growth rates in a range of -1.8% to -4.0% annualized. Similarly, manufacturing imports show consistent and much larger negative growth rates of -12.8% over 12 months, of -9.7% annualized over six months and of -20.2% at an annual rate over three months. Germany's trade performance is not being achieved on the back of strong exports; rather it's been done on the back of continuing weakness in exports with even weaker conditions in imports.

Sequential nonmanufacturing trends: However, trade performance is a result of manufacturing and nonmanufacturing trends. Nonmanufacturing trends for exports also show consistent negative results for slightly higher negative growth rates in the range between -4.3% and -11.7% over three months, six months and 12 months- again without a clear pattern. For imports, the nonmanufacturing trends show still-gigantic negative numbers, but in this case, they are tending towards slightly less weakness with -41.9% growth over 12 months, -25.3% growth annualized over six months, and -20.9% over 3 months annualized. Comparing nonmanufacturing trends, we basically get the same result as for trade in manufactures. Nonmanufactured exports are weak, but nonmanufactured imports are even weaker and that also tends to drive the trade picture more toward surplus. Clearly, it's demand weakness in the monetary union plus price weakness on the commodity price front that are helping to cause the trade picture to improve in the monetary union.

Germany: The German trade is slightly different from the EMU trend with exports logging positive growth on all these horizons, although showing weakening growth with a 7.6% gain over 12 months, a 1.7% annual rate gain over six months, and only a 0.8% annual rate gain over three months. Compared to the European Monetary Union trends, Germany also has imports weaker than exports, with imports rising 3.8% over 12 months, falling at a 19.4% annual rate over six months and then falling at a 13.1% annual rate over three months.

France: France shows some similarity to the German situation with the growing exports although in the case of France exports are accelerating from 4.3% over 12 months to a pace of 5.3% annualized over six months, to an 11.9% annual rate over three months. French imports are also declining on all these horizons although with a much weaker negative growth rate over three months as French import growth transitions from -9.2% over 12 months to -19.9% annualized over six months to an annual rate of just -2% over three months.

United Kingdom: The U.K. that is completely independent and no longer a part of the European Union shows decaying trends for exports that grow by 24.2% over 12 months, decline at a 14.6% annual rate over six months and then decline at a 54.9% annual rate over three months. U.K. imports fall by 1.2% over 12 months, then fall at a 10.1% annual rate over six months, but then only fall at a 7.1% annual rate over three months. The weakness in exports over three months completely dominate the weakness in imports for the United Kingdom over that period.

Other Selected European exports: Export data for Finland, Portugal, and Belgium show very mixed trends: all of them share declining export trends over 12 months, but then over six months Finland posts an export gain of 1.3% while exports from Belgium and Portugal continue to show substantial negative growth rates over six months. Over three months Finland’s exports declined at a 27.8% annual rate as Portugal and Belgium each saw exports increasing over three months by 7.4% in Portugal and at a 5.3% annualized rate for Belgium.

This week we turn to ongoing El Niño climate conditions and resulting implications for food prices and policy responses in Asia. El Niño effects have already started to depress crop yields in the region, with major producers such as India reeling from poor rice harvests. Consequent food shortages have exacerbated inflationary pressures in Asia, presenting renewed problems for authorities. Regional governments have responded with a range of measures, from price caps to import subsidies and even outright export bans. The scope for a major response from many governments in the region is limited however by the lack of fiscal policy space. Stimulus programs that were enacted during the pandemic have led to ballooning government deficits and debt in a number of economies in recent years. However, central banks face their own set of challenges too. By tightening monetary policy again to fend off renewed inflation challenges they could further tighten financial conditions, from already restrictive territory, and thereby hasten the onset of recessions.

Industrial output in the European Monetary Union rose by 0.6% in August following a sharp 1.3% decline in July and a small 0.1% increase in June. Sequentially output remains weak but without any clear developing pattern. Output is down 5.3% over 12 months; it's falling at a faster 6.7% annual rate over six months; it is falling at a slower 2.6% annual rate over three months. However, in the quarter-to-date with two months of data in-hand, output is falling at a relatively rapid 4.6% annual rate. Turning away from the headline (which is for industrial production excluding construction), manufacturing shows a clearer deterioration in place with a 5% decline over 12 months, a decline at an 11.8% annual rate over six months, and a lesser, but still very rapid, decline of 10.3% at an annual rate over three months.

Sector results find industrial production output mostly increasing in August, with consumer goods output up by 0.7% and capital goods output up by 0.3% offset only by intermediate goods with an output decline of 0.3%.

Sequential sectors Sequential sector results from manufacturing shows consumer goods with output falling 2% year-over-year, falling at a 5.8% annual rate over six months and then rising at a 0.7% annual rate over three months. Intermediate goods output falls at fairly steady 5% pace over 12 months, falling at a nearly identical 5.1% annual rate over six months and falling just a slightly less rapidly 4.4% annual rate over three months. Capital goods has a consistent pace of decline over 12 months, six months and three months, with growth rates clustered near an extremely weak 10% annual rate over each horizon.

Monthly country results Thirteen European Monetary Union countries offer early results for manufacturing industrial production. In August only three countries show month-to-month declines: those are Belgium, France, and the Netherlands. However, in July six countries showed month-to-month declines, while in June ten countries showed month-to-month declines. In June the countries showing increases in industrial production were Italy, the Netherlands, and Ireland.

Sequential growth in IP across EMU members Sequentially these 13 countries show output accelerating in half of them over three months and in half of them over six months, but acceleration occurs in only about 8% of them over 12 months. The accelerations compare three-month growth to six-month growth, six-month growth to 12-month growth, and 12-month growth to the period of 12-months ago. Acceleration data look somewhat better with essentially neutral readings over three months and six months showing that only half of the countries are experiencing output growth that is decelerating. However, in many cases this is because the decline in output – which is still in train- is occurring at a slower pace. Over three months nine countries show output declines; over six months twelve of thirteen-countries show output declines; that is the same number as over 12 months. Output in the monetary union in the manufacturing sector is still broadly declining; however, the pace of decline is not clearly accelerating as over three months and six months we see that accelerations are worse in only half of the members. However, quarter-to-date data show that eleven of thirteen countries are showing output declining with two-month data in for the third quarter.